Media and Entertainment Innovators Immerse Viewers in the Streets and Historical Sights of Damascus with ABC News VR, the First VR News Experience of its Kind

Palo Alto, CA — September 2015 — Jaunt, the virtual reality content and technology company pioneering cinematic VR, and the ABC Network (ABC), today announced the first piece of content for newly formed ABC News VR, a milestone virtual reality project of its kind created in collaboration with a national television broadcast network. Available now on iOS http://bit.ly/ABCNewsVRApple and Google Play http://bit.ly/ABCNewsVRGooglePlay, the collaboration’s first virtual reality experience brings viewers to Syria where teams of curators are working to preserve the country’s endangered antiquities. Through this collaboration, Jaunt and ABC News are bringing virtual reality storytelling to the ABC News Division and beyond -- an entirely new frontier, empowering journalists to capture history and tell its stories in new and innovative ways.

“We live in an exciting time for news, media and entertainment. Cinematic virtual reality represents an entirely new way to experience news that is truly objective, giving the viewer the sense that they are actually there,” said Jens Christensen, CEO of Jaunt. “ABC News has a long history of innovation in media and we are thrilled to show the future of the news to the world together.”

ABC News VR allows viewers to experience news content like never before. The first collaboration from Jaunt and ABC News is Inside Syria VR, an immersive 360-degree VR experience inside Syria. Captured with Jaunt’s proprietary cameras and advanced 3D sound-field microphones, the content places viewers right alongside ABC News correspondent Alexander Marquardt and his team as they traveled to Damascus, Syria in August. With complete freedom to look around in any direction and experience every moment as if you were actually there, viewers explore the secret holding rooms where teams of curators are working day and night to protect and preserve Syria’s endangered antiquities.

This first ABC News VR experience also gives viewers rare access to the streets and historical sights of Damascus, now largely cut off from the outside world, as Marquardt and team explore and document the endangered city. From the Damascus Citadel and Souk to the Umayyad Mosque and the National Museum, Marquardt transports viewers into the story, providing a depth of reporting unlike anything captured before.

About Jaunt

Jaunt is pioneering the future of creative storytelling through cinematic virtual reality. Founded in 2013, Jaunt is the leading developer of the hardware, software, tools, and applications to enable cinematic VR and put the power of virtual reality in the hands of today’s best content creators. In addition, Jaunt works with leading creatives – from brands to artists to filmmakers – to create cutting-edge content through its studio arm, Jaunt Studios. Headquartered in Palo Alto, California, the company also maintains a presence in Los Angeles and produces branded and original VR content for audiences worldwide. Jaunt’s investors include Highland Capital Partners, Google Ventures, Redpoint Ventures, Peter Gotcher, Blake Krikorian, and British Sky Broadcasting (corporate.sky.com). Experience more at www.jauntvr.com.